This collaborative collection considers the packaging, presentation and consumption of medieval manuscripts and early printed books in Europe 1350-1550. The book showcases innovative research on the history of the book from a range of established and younger scholars from the States and Europe in the fields of English and French studies, History, Music, and Art History. Its attention to aspects of the physical book, and to books and readers, makes it timely and appealing: these are topics of wide current interest for book historians. Two things make this book different: first, its European coverage, which takes its reach and significance beyond the more provincial English-only emphasis of many comparable books; secondly, its broad interpretation of the term 'consumption'. While frequently used metaphorically in the context of luxury manuscripts or printed books produced for wealthy owners, 'consumption' may also be treated literally: bibliophagia (the ingesting of books), or consumption by time, worms, fleas (!), fire, or censors. The three strands of the book are interdependent, and highlight the materiality of the manuscript or printed book as a consumable, focusing on its 'consumability' in the sense of its packaging and presentation, its consumers, and on the act of consumption in the sense of reading and reception or literal decay. It is a volume which is likely to draw attention to some unusual aspects of book history.
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